Gallery: Andrew Skurka's Alaska-Yukon Expedition

Loading photos...

See highlights from Andrew Skurka's 4,720-mile (7,596-kilometer) skiing, hiking, and rafting expedition through eight national parks, over two major mountain ranges, and down some of North America's wildest rivers.

Welcome to Kotzebue

In mid-March Andrew Skurka started his trip in Kotzebue, Alaska, the largest town in northwest Alaska, population 2,000. Located 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle, it was still winter when he arrived. The temperature was -25F when he skied out of town.

Arctic Coast

To say that Skurka was intimated by the Arctic Coast would be a mild understatement. There are few natural wind breaks, there are no trees for fire, and the weather is brutally harsh.

Front Street, Kotzebue

Sea ice extends miles off of Kotzebue’s coast, rendering their boats and barges useless.

Tripod Flats Cabin

There are a few cabins along the network of snowmachine routes Skurka followed to reach the Alaska Range from his starting point in Kotzebue. Here Tripod Flats had a morning temperature of -10F, so Skurka cranked up the stove and stood in the sunlight to wait for it to warm up.

Iditarod Race Cabins

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

Skurka was excited to find these checkpoint huts along a remote stretch of the Iditarod Trail. The temperature plummeted once the sun went down, due to the clear sky. The nighttime low was -20 degrees Fahrenheit, which is mild compared to the -50 degrees Fahrenheit that this checkpoint has seen during the race.

Sulatna River Bridge

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

The most remote section of the Iditarod Trail is between the villages of Takotna and Ruby, in between which there are some mining ghost towns. One of those towns, Poorman, which had its heyday in 1911, was accessible via a road out of Ruby, and this was the bridge over the Sulatna River.

Straightaway Glacier

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

Glaciers pour off of Mount McKinley and Mount Foraker, the highest peaks in the Alaska Range. This is the terminal moraine of one such glacier, Straightaway.

Afternoon Break

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

On many days Skurka would take just one long break, for about an hour in the early-afternoon. This was an opportunity for to dry his feet and gear, to make notes on his maps, and to take a cat nap to re-energize for another long push to camp.

Skiing the Denali Fault

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

National Geographic photographer Michael Brown shuffles through rotting spring snow in Denali National Park, near Foggy Pass on the Denali Fault.

Notch Creek, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

In mid-May, Skurka exchanged his skis for his running shoes and packraft, just in time to follow a classic route through Wrangell-St. Elias National Park from Nebesna to McCarthy.

Controller Bay, Alaska

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

This was taken near the start of the Lost Coast section, which got even more spectacular as Skurka traveled south toward Glacier Bay National Park.

Gustavus Maildrop

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

Skurka had food and supplies shipped to various Post Offices along his route, rather than trying to buy these items locally, which is expensive and time-consuming (and often impossible in small-town Alaska). Skurka recalled that receiving new shipment was empowering: "When I picked up a shipment with fresh maps and full food bags, I was prepared to go places."

Grand Plateau Glacier Outlet, Alaska’s Lost Coas

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

A tremendous amount of icemelt from Grand Plateau Glacier cascades 150 feet vertical feet (46 meters) in just a half mile (less than a kilometer), resulting in terrifying rapids, like these just above the beach. The safest way across the river is to go upstream to the terminal lake, paddle across the lake in a packraft, and descend back down to the beach.

Richardson Highway

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

Skurka's route included a few roadwalks where there was not a “practical” wilderness route, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) total. One such roadwalk was along the scenic Richardson Highway, which slices through the Alaska Range along the Delta River. Any wilderness route parallel to the highway would have involved technical glacier travel, which he was unequipped to do.

Miles Lake, Copper River

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

The calving face of Miles Glacier drops icebergs into Miles Lake, which was scoured out by the glacier not too long ago and which the Copper River flows through on its way to the Gulf of Alaska. National Geographic photographer Michael Brown and photo assistant Roman Dial couldn't resist the temptation to get close to one of the giants that has beached itself on the shallow lake floor.

Predator and Prey

Photograph by Andrew Skurka

Skurka spotted tracks of caribou and wolf seen in the braids of the Yanert River, one of the major waterways in the Eastern Alaska Range, also known as the Hayes Range.

Over the last decade, author Peter Potterfield has hiked more than 10,000 miles on six continents to research this list. We present the world's 15 best hikes, including Patagonia, Newfoundland, Petra, and more.